Our invention relates to curtain walls of buildings, and more specifically to a prefabricated curtain wall assembly composed of standardized units which are arrayed in rows and columns on the floor structure of a building, in particular to a multistory building. Still more specifically, our invention pertains to improved means in such a curtain wall assembly for mounting its constituent units to the floor structure of a building.
A curtain wall in the form of an array of standardized curtain wall units is per se not new in the art. The curtain wall units are prefabricated and are assembled in situ by being mounted to the floor systems of the building. Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-25174 represents an example of known means for mounting curtain wall units to a floor structure, which we believe is most pertinent to our invention. It suggests the use of crosspieces rigidly attached to each curtain wall unit, and connector plates mounted to the floor structure. The connector plates are coupled to the respctive crosspieces for horizontal sliding motion in a direction parallel to the plane of the curtain wall unit. The sliding engagement of the connector plates with the crosspieces is intended to allow horizontal displacement of the individual curtain wall units relative to the floor structure.
Our objection, however, is to the coupling of the connector plates with the crosspieces. When the curtain wall units are subjected to forces normal to their plane, these forces act directly upon the joints between connector plates and crosspieces in such a way as to cause their destruction in the worst case.